Abstract

Hogfish (Lachnolaimus maximus) is a reef-associated fish species found in the western Atlantic Ocean, which supports a moderate commercial and recreational fishery. For the past three years, this U.S. fishery has been under review and found to be overfished in East Florida. However, the majority of life history data used for this assessment was collected solely in the Florida Keys. Previous studies used in the most recent assessment reported significantly stunted growth rates of hogfish in regions closer to high human population density in comparison to distant locations, such as the Dry Tortugas islands. This study examines the age-length relationship of hogfish populations in Broward County, Florida (USA), which has a much larger human population and more accessible reefs than the Florida Keys. In this study, over 170 hogfish were collected from 2016-2017 and aged using otolith analysis. The findings indicate that, despite the higher human population in Broward County, the observed growth rate was higher than the Florida Keys. In addition, growth rates of hogfish collected from different reef tracts which run parallel the coast were significantly different. In contrast with prior studies, the most accessible reef tract (ca. 4 - 6 m deep) had a significantly higher growth rate than the outermost reef (ca. 15-25 m deep). This data demonstrates the importance of factoring in sample location when determining regional growth rates of a species and should be a consideration for resource managers when assessing a fishery stock.

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